More Hall St. Inmates Allege They Were Forced To Fight

July 1, 2013 5:30 AM

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – More inmates are coming forward to say they were goaded into fighting each other for the amusement of guards at a St. Louis prison.

Almost a year after the original lawsuit was filed, there are now eight inmates and former inmates of Medium Security Institution on Hall St. named as plaintiffs in the suit and 30 others seeking to join according to the man representing the inmates, attorney Daniel Brown.

“Individuals who were put in solitary confinement were not supposed to have contact with any other inmate but what was happening was the guards were actually taking inmates out of the cells, placing them in cells with other inmates, and forcing them to fight each other,” he said.

The city has filed a response to the lawsuit, denying the allegations.

“Simply, they went through the lawsuit and said each of the things we alleged did not occur,” Brown says. “We know that that is not true of course because we got the video and at the end of the day, once jurors see that video, I think they’ll be with us.”

According to Brown, surveillance video shows before and after evidence of the fights with inmates being led into a cell looking fine and then coming out beaten and bruised.

A judge must decide whether to grant class status for the lawsuit before the list of inmates who have recently come forward can join the original eight plaintiffs.